Klauthsura finished her preliminary scan and packed away the equipment she had set up.
The two moved beneath a secluded tree and exchanged what they knew.
After listening to Renato's account, the female Dragonborn crouched on the ground and used psionics to sketch a mind map in the dirt.
The information wove into a complex web, with terms and arrows linking together in a dizzying tangle.
Klauthsura frowned, seemingly deep in thought. A moment later, she asked Renato for confirmation again:
"Renato, are you certain the Niter Kingdom is a human nation that exists only in history?"
"Yes," Renato replied firmly. "The Niter Kingdom fell and vanished a thousand years ago. I even spent a long time adventuring through its ruins. The Mage Association in the south claims that most of its Royal City sank underground, while the surrounding woodland still contains countless labyrinthine formations that no one can unravel..."
As he explained this to the female Dragonborn, Renato gazed at the vast woodland in the distance. Nittel Royal City had been built within this sprawling primeval forest. Only the trees immediately around the city had been cleared to create farmland encircling its walls.
When he realized that this beautiful, verdant forest might be the Phantom Forest he had dealt with for so long in a later age, Renato could not help wondering.
What could possibly have turned this vast natural woodland into a twisted, dangerous place like the Phantom Forest?
The Niter Kingdom's ruins, riddled with magical traps, the gray-white mist, the Great Earthquake, and now everything he had seen and heard here...
Especially after learning from Klauthsura that this demiplane was artificially created, Renato grew ever more certain that this series of disasters was no coincidence.
Someone must have arranged all of this to accomplish something, achieve some